Autumn Leaves Wreath

It's already Autumn, has been for over a month you say?  That's my time keeping for you.

I am now going to show you something that hangs in my parents house.  I made it quite a few years ago now....and I find it embarrassing.  My Mum still loves it, but she has to, doesn't she?

[P.S What's worse is that this is how it looked after I spruced it up and rearranged it a bit for the photo]

It looks really sorry for itself.  When it was made, it was for hanging outside on the front door, however; the door has now changed and it doesn't accommodate a wreath, so this now hangs on their dining room door.  I don't just want to improve the wreath, I wanted to completely change it.  So, as I had all the basic components for this wreath makeover already, here is how I did it:

What I Used:

Wooden Twine Wreath

Felt [in Autumnal colours]

Jewellery/Moulding Wire

Tapestry Thread

Needle/Scissors/Craft Glue

I stripped the wreath completely so that I had a blank canvas:

I love the wreath and didn't want to hide it, so my design was to cover around 2/3 in Autumnal coloured leaves, which I cut freehand from felt.  If you have a particular shape that you want, you 

could print it and cut to use as a template, or trace on to paper/card and use to draw around.

I needed around 27 leaves in total to complete my wreath.

To add texture and detail, I sewed a basic running back-stitch down the centre of each 

leaf in a variety of tapestry colours that matched the colour scheme:

I bunched my leaves in groups of 3, attaching with a couple of stitches to secure in place at the bottom:

To add a little variety to the wreath, I also alternated some of the colours:

Before securing in place, I laid my leaves over the wreath to check the composition and check I was happy with the groups of colours I had chosen and decide their order [I'm picky like that]:

To attach and fix everything, I decided to secure with thin wire.  Beading wire is of a fantastic thin thickness but still with the strength and stability to hold everything in place:

Threading the wire, I used this to fix the leaves and wrap around and between the wreath:

I continued this all around the wreath until all my leaves were secure.
My final additions were felt yo-yos with covered buttons in the centre to add flower detail:

Whatever you do, don't tell me you preferred the original!